What Is Love? ∞ Max Verstappen

𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 13

♪ Take me back to the feeling when
Everything was left to find ♪

Claire Leclerc POV

Thursday arrived and I went to meet Max at the entrance of the hotel. Olivia saw me and came running in my direction.

"Dad said you are coming. Are you?" She asks excitedly.

"Of course. Your dad would never lie" I say picking her up and kissing her cheek. I look at Max and see him smile.

"But even grandma is only coming next week" She says confusedly and I laugh.

"Well, would you prefer that I don't go? Is that it?" I ask pretending to be insulted and she shakes her head frenetically.

"No. Come with us, pretty please" She almost begs and I put her down.

"Don't worry princess, I am going with you either way. I will pay now that your dad already paid yours" I say kissing her on the forehead and going to the receptionist.

"Good morning. What can I help you with?" The woman asks with a smile to which I smile back.

"I wanted to pay for my room. 308" I say picking up my purse. She pauses and looks at Max who was behind me helping Olivia put on her jacket.

"Your boyfriend already paid for your room" She says confusedly and I turn back to look at Max with my arms crossed.

"What?" He asks like he didn't know what happened.

"Why did you pay for my room?"

"Christian told me to. He said to put it on the company's card" He says nonchalantly.

"Well, I will talk with him" I say preparing to pick up my baggage.

"Take Liv and her bag, I will take our baggage to the trunk, the cab is here" He says going ahead, I make sure her jacket is buttoned and I pick her up.

"Dad likes you. He woke up early to do his hair and took a lot of time getting dressed" She says while Max talked to the driver.

"Dad just likes to look good. He is always in that Red Bull shirt" I say brushing it off and he opens the door for us.

The drive in the car was quiet, Max was on his phone taking care of some things about the trip and the villa he rented. He tried picking up Olivia but she blatantly denied him. We got to the airport and I kept her face hidden the whole way because someone could recognize her and take pictures. I followed Max while he took care of everything. I gave him my ID and passport and he went with it. We got to the jet and I notice Olivia was already sleeping.

"Is she sleeping? You don't need to hold her the whole flight" He says when he notices I sat down with her.

"Let her be Max" I say calmly and he goes to two seats and suddenly we have a couch in here.

"She can sleep here, we have a 13-hour flight ahead. Everyone needs to be comfortable" He says picking her up carefully and laying her on the couch.

"I will bring you a blanket" The flight attendant says and Max nods.

"How is Lando?" He asks trying to get a reaction and I smile.

"Well, I hope he is okay. I haven't heard anything to convince me otherwise" I say uninterested.

"Thank you" Max says picking up the blanket and putting it over Olivia who didn't even move.

"She told me you woke up earlier, took a long time picking what to wear and doing your hair" I say amused and he laughs.

"That had nothing to do with you, I can look good sometimes"

"Definitely. And why was I invited for this after that night?" I ask curiously.

"Olivia likes you. It's been me and her for a long time, she will feel happier that someone outside the family is coming for her birthday" He was being honest, it was easy to tell.

"There are a lot of people who would love her and her birthday is in 11 days, are we pretending that the kiss didn't happen?" I ask and I see him clench his jaw.

"Claire, she is my daughter. Her mom left her. I am not going to dive into a relationship, if you want to see where it goes I would be up for it. I just don't know how to approach it" He says clearly nervous.

"I don't want to approach it. I would like you to admit that you like having me around as much as she does. Okay, we annoy each other a lot. But you like my presence, admit it for once" I say leaning back and he smiles.

"I do, I like having you around. But she absolutely adores you so it's a win-win for everyone" He says shrugging and I smile.

"Stop being a stuck-up and sit by my side Verstappen" I say letting out a laugh. He looks at Olivia who still slept peacefully and then came to sit by my side.

The trip was big but the food was good, Olivia woke up and started drawing and playing entertaining games. We got to the villa and it was fun. Australia was kind of hot even though it was Autumn. We ate something and I was severely jet lagged because in my brain it was 10 AM but it was 8 PM in Australia.

"We were good enough for keeping awake all 13 hours, we deserve to sleep now" He says and I nod.

"Have a good night," I say while he enters the room right next to mine. Olivia's room is in front of us.

I took a shower and fell asleep as soon as I lay down in bed. In the middle of the night, I felt someone entering my bed. I opened my eyes and saw Olivia snuggling her body as close to mine as she could.

"Can I stay here with you?" She asks in her sleepy voice and I smile running my hand through her hair.

"Of course, you can my liefje," I say, kissing her cheek and going back to sleep.

I don't care if she just wanted company or if she had a nightmare. What I do know is that I wouldn't say no and we slept like babies. So I don't care whatever brought her here. She is safe.